In order to confer to a combustible battery a massive and volumetric density of energy as well as an electrochemical output which is as high as possible, it is necessary to limit the undesirable phenomena of electrochemical polarizaton, which is translated under the operational conditions of the battery, into a drop in voltage which adds to the resistance loss in the electrolyte and which is proportional to the current density to the electrodes (therefore to the intensity of the current delivered by the battery).
This polarization phenomena results from a number of causes which are far from being fully understood at the present time. However, it can be noted that the polarization can be diminished by virtue of the judicious choice of the material of the electrodes (platinum, in the case of the anodes, and silver in the case of the cathode, these having shown themselves to be particularly adequate from this point of view) and of the structure (a fine porous structure appears to be desirable).
However, even though substantial research effort has gone into the construction of electrodes for combustible batteries with solid ceramic electrolyte conductive to oxygen ions, no completely satisfactory solution has been obtained up to the present from the point of view of the elimination of the polarization of the electrodes.